Skip to content

Research Highlights

Oceanus Magazine

A Robot Is Resurrected at Sea

A Robot Is Resurrected at Sea

May 5, 2010

Barely a month after the undersea robot ABE imploded and was lost in the depths, ABE’s “son,” Sentry, suffered fire and flooding that destroyed critical internal components. But a team of engineers rallied to rebuild its electronics at sea and…

R.I.P.  A.B.E

R.I.P.  A.B.E

March 19, 2010

A pioneering deep-sea exploration robot—one of the first successful submersible vehicles that was both unmanned and untethered to surface ships—was lost at sea March 5, 2010, on a research expedition off the coast of Chile. The Autonomous Benthic Explorer, affectionately…

A Robot Starts to Make Decisions on its Own

A Robot Starts to Make Decisions on its Own

February 22, 2010

It’s a lot easier to send a bloodhound to track a criminal, or your kid to pick up groceries, than it is to get a deep-sea robot to find something on the seafloor. The dog will pick up the scent…

The Squid, the Whale, and the Grad Student

The Squid, the Whale, and the Grad Student

February 19, 2010

On the Serengeti Plains of Africa, lions stalk their prey mainly by sight. Scientists studying them also use their eyes to observe the hunt and indeed the entire ecosystem. They can take in the whole panorama, easily distinguishing lions from…

The Mysterious Movements of Deep-Sea Larvae

The Mysterious Movements of Deep-Sea Larvae

December 31, 2009

The marvelous migrations of fish and whales through the deep sea have been hard enough for us humans to follow. But what about tiny organisms—many smaller than the dot beneath this question mark? How they move from one spot to…

News Releases

WHOI’s Jennifer Johnson receives Fulbright Specialist Award

August 7, 2025

Research Associate will complete a project at the National Fisheries and Marine Research Institute in Angola.

New paper reveals global threat of salt contamination to water supplies in tidal rivers, threatening critical infrastructure

July 29, 2025

Researchers make urgent call for convergent interdisciplinary research to combat worsening crisis

New global efforts to map and monitor kelp forests extend to South Africa and Namibia

April 30, 2025

A new expansion of kelpwatch.org, brings over 40 years of satellite-derived kelp canopy data to South Africa and Namibia, offering new insights into these vital underwater forest ecosystems.

‘Fishial’ recognition: Neural network identifies coral reef sounds

March 11, 2025

Faster identification of fish sounds from acoustic recordings can improve research, conservation efforts

Scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution identify heat-resistant kelp strain

February 10, 2025

A new strain of kelp can help support sustainable farming

News & Insights

WHOI builds bridges with Arctic Indigenous communities

February 10, 2021

NSF program fosters collaboration between indigenous communities and traditional scientists, allowing WHOI’s autonomous vehicles to shed light on a changing Arctic

WHOI-assisted study finds ocean dumping of DDT waste was “sloppy”

October 29, 2020

An investigative report this week in the LA Times features the work of WHOI’s marine geochemistry lab in identifying the discarded barrels and analyzing samples from the discovery.

Scroll To Top